Free Beer

Dana Powers, July 22nd, 2005

Sometimes we get thirsty here at CC-HQ, and so sometimes we head up to the
coffee machine and press the button for coffee. Or sometimes we make espresso
and dump the left over grounds down the drain until the drainage pipe clogs
and our downstairs neighbors get a wonderful espresso-ground shower. And then
sometimes we decide to brew beer. Good ole’ CC licensed beer. Beer that might
be terrible, but that we really hope isn’t. And then sometimes we blog about
it.

So we the interns of CC decided to take a shot at brewing the
href="http://www.voresoel.dk/main.php?id=70">infamous CC-beer. The recipe
was first published by some students in Denmark under an Attribution-ShareAlike
license – perhaps as a joke in reference to the free software movement’s
mantra, “free as in speech, not as in beer.” We think that’s funny, but we also
think beer tastes good. So we took the recipe down to the local homebrew
store, SF Brewcraft, and consulted
with the masters:
href="http://www.sunsetbeacon.com/archives/richmondreview/2005editions/Apr05/richmondcurrentissue.html">Griz and
href="http://www.sfrichmondreview.com/archives/richmondreview/2005editions/Apr05/brewcraft.html">Rev.
Because we’re first time brewers, they suggested we modify the recipe slightly
to make it easier on our inner newbishness. The Danes, apparently, are quite
advanced in their beer-making-methodologies. We’re sad to say that we had to
ditch the guarana beans, though. It was partly because we couldn’t find any,
partly because we really had no idea how to work them into the modified recipe,
and partly because Griz kept looking at us funny and talking about monkeys and
footballs. So
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcb/27800655/in/set-587055/">this is the
recipe we ended up using, CC-licensed of course. When we manage to decipher
exactly what the recipe actually says, we’ll post that online as well.

Anyways, we bought a basic homebrew kit and enough ingredients for our
first batch: grains, hops, some malt extract, a bit of yeast, and a dash of
sugar, and then we began our foray into fermentation. Altogether, the recipe
should make about 5 gallons of homebrewed beer gloriousness and will take around
one month start to finish. Right now, our brew is fermenting in
href="http://creativecommons.org/about/people#44">Free Culture Fred’s

laundry room to give it that “so fresh and so clean” feel. After another week
or so it’ll be ready to bottle – although sadly it will still have to sit
for a few weeks more before it is ready to drink. We’re also working on some
nice CC beer labels, maybe even some CC bottle caps, but we’ll blog more about
that later. Until then, we thought you might find
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcb/sets/587055/">our flickr stream
entertaining. Mmmm, beer.